UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND, Va. – The University of Richmond baseball team opened its 2017 home slate in grand fashion on Wednesday afternoon at Pitt Field. The Spiders put on a full display with a stellar pitching performance from freshman Tim Miller and timely hitting to roll past in-state rival Longwood, 11-7.

Miller tossed six strong innings, allowing just four hits and two earned runs, while striking out two and walking just one to earn his first collegiate victory.

Offensively, redshirt sophomore D.J. Lee and juniorDaniel Brumbaugh each had multi-hit performances to highlight the 10-hit attack for the Spiders. Eight different players had a hit in the win. Freshman Justin Cook had three RBIs in his first collegiate start.

“It’s always good to be back at home and our guys did a nice job jumping on top early and controlling the game throughout,” Head Coach Tracy Woodson said. “Tim did a great job on the mound, limiting their offense all day long and offensively, we had big hits from up and down the lineup.”

Miller did the work early on for the Spiders tossing up three consecutive scoreless innings to set the stage for Richmond’s offensive explosion in the home half of the third.

Sophomore Zach Kurtz got the rally going when he ripped a triple into right field and came around to score when the relay throw went errant to give the Spiders a 1-0 advantage.

Lee followed with a double of his own and moved to third on a wild pitch. Junior Vinny Capra put two runners on with a walk and moved to second on another wild pitch. Junior Kyle Adams made it 2-0 with an RBI groundout and sixth-year senior Jonathan de Marte pushed it to 3-0 when he laced a single back up the middle.

A single by Brumbaugh put two runners on for Cook, who delivered an RBI groundout to push the advantage to 4-0. An RBI single from Caleb Ward and an RBI double from sophomore Kyle Schmidt rounded out the six-run frame for the Spiders.

Longwood would answer with two runs in their half of the fourth, but Miller settled in, allowing just four hits total on the day.

Richmond put together another big inning in the fifth, taking advantage of two Lancer miscues, four walks and two hit batsmen for a five-run inning and an 11-2 lead after six innings.

The Lancers wouldn’t go quietly though putting up a five spot in the top of the seventh, cutting Richmond’s lead to four, but freshman Aaron Winkler and Brumbaugh combined for six strikeouts to close out the game and preserve Richmond’s victory.

The Spiders return to action on Saturday against Toledo. First pitch is slated for 2:00 p.m. at Pitt Field.